The Ginkakuji Temple is also known as the Silver Pavillion, although, curiously, it is not coated in silver plating as one would expect from the name, although that was indeed the original intention of its designer.
A Rinzai Zen temple located in Kyoto, Ginkakuji is situated in the Higashiyama eastern mountains in the city?s Sakyo ward and also goes by the name Jish?-ji, which means the Temple of Shining Mercy.

Widely considered to be one of the best temples to visit in Japan, it is also regarded as a prime example of the architecture of the Higashiyama Culture that flourished during the country?s Muromachi period.
History of Ginkakuji
The Ginkakuji Temple was built in 1482 by the famous shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa as a retirement villa, with the design reflecting his grandfather?s own Golden Pavilion (Knkakuji), at the base of Kyoto?s Kitayama mountains in the north of the city. Yoshimasa was obsessed with the arts and Ginkakuji became a center of Higashiyama Bunka traditional culture in Kyoto, from which Japanese traditions such as the tea ceremony, flower arranging, poetry, garden design, and Noh theater emerged.
Yoshimasa is said to have used the idyllic villa as a refuge from the ravages of ?nin War, and to have used the beauty of Ginkakuji?s extensive gardens as a distraction to the sight of the city of Kyoto burning below as the conflict worsened.
It was during the war that construction was halted on the villa and the initial plans to cover the building with an overla...